System and method for improving network performance

• US 10,075,351 B2
• Filed: 06/24/2013
• Issued: 09/11/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/22/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: CenturyLink Intellectual Property LLC (Lumen Technologies, Inc.)
• Inventors: Morrill, Robert J.
• Primary Examiner(s): Thier, Michael
• Assistant Examiner(s): Mensah, Prince Akwasi
• Application Number:
  US13/925,265
• Publication Number:
  US 20130286875A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,905 Days
• Field of Search: 370215-228, 370241-253
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 41/5009 Determining service level performance parameters or violations of service level contracts, e.g. violations of agreed response time or mean time between failures [MTBF]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/04 Processing captured monitoring data, e.g. for logfile generation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 43/065 related to network devices

Abstract

The disclosed embodiments include a system, method, and computer program product for improving network performance. For example, in one embodiment, a computer-implemented method for improving network performance includes determining network performance information data indicative of network transmission characteristics of a first set of data packets that are communicated, using a first data link layer protocol, over at least one link of a network. The method further includes the step of improving, using a processor, transmission of a second set of data packets over the network, which utilizes a second data link layer protocol, based on the network performance information data determined from the first set of data packets that are communicated using the first data link layer protocol.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method for improving network performance comprising:

determining network performance information data indicative of network transmission characteristics of a first set of data packets that are communicated, using a first data link layer protocol, over at least one link of a network, the first set of data packets comprising a plurality of performance information packets (PIP packets) that include at least some of the network performance information, the network performance information in the PIP packets including an amount of real-time bandwidth usage and an amount of non-real-time bandwidth usage, wherein the amount of real-time bandwidth usage is associated with real-time content and the amount of non-real-time bandwidth usage is associated with non-real-time-content;

communicating from a data link layer of a network device to at least one other layer of the network device, information regarding degradation in transmission performance associated with the at least one link in the network, wherein the at least one other layer comprises a Transport layer (layer

     4) of the network device;

altering network traffic with the Transport layer by modifying a window size of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sliding window;

and performing a Multi-Protocol Label Switch (MPLS) Fast Re-Route, based on the network performance information in the PIP packets, to improve transmission of a second set of data packets over the network, which utilizes a second data link layer protocol.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first set of data packets and the second set of data packets are transmitted by a same network node using multiplexed protocols at the data link layer.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein improving transmission of the second set of data packets over the network is performed at a higher protocol stack than a data link layer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one other layer further comprises an Application layer (Layer 7) of the network device, wherein said Application layer performs one of informing a user of a status of said network, disconnecting said user from said network, suggesting to said user to attempt re-connecting to said network, controlling communications to manage multiple real-time sessions when said user exceeds available communications resources, communicating statistics to said user reflecting their real-time data usage versus total bandwidth, communicating statistics to said user reflecting their session usage of real-time bandwidth, and presenting one of CODEC and sessions selections to said user for their selection.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one other layer further comprises a Presentation layer (Layer 6) of the network device, wherein the Presentation layer alters network traffic by dynamically controlling a video codec, wherein the dynamically controlling includes forcing a repeat of a last video frame, reduce frame quality, frame resolution, frame size, and frame rate.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one other layer further comprises a Network layer (Layer 3) of the network device, wherein the Network layer alters network traffic routing to reroute packets in the network, which includes moving a session from one network operator to another network operator.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one other layer further comprises is a Physical layer (Layer 1) of the network device, wherein the physical layer is configured to route a data transmission to an alternative physical link.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein improving network performance includes reducing a number of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation windows.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein improving network performance includes changing alternative transmission schema.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein improving network performance includes rerouting packets over the at least one link in the network to an alternative physical copper link.

6. The method of 1, wherein the at least one other layer further comprises a Session layer (Layer 5) of the network device, wherein the session layer alters network traffic by adjusting a quantity of packets in a session.

12. A system, comprising:

at least one processor;

and at least one data storage component coupled to the at least one processor,

wherein the data storage component includes instructions stored therein that when executed by the at least one processor performs operations comprising;

determining network performance information data indicative of network transmission characteristics of a first set of data packets that are communicated, using a first data link layer protocol, over at least one link of a network, the first set of data packets comprising a plurality of performance information packets (PIP packets) that include at least some of the network performance information, the network performance information in the PIP packets including an amount of real-time bandwidth usage and an amount of non-real-time bandwidth usage, wherein the amount of real-time bandwidth usage is associated with real-time content and the amount of non-real-time bandwidth usage is associated with non-real-time-content;

communicating from a data link layer of a network device to at least one other layer of the network device, information regarding degradation in transmission performance associated with the at least one link in the network, wherein the at least one other layer comprises a Transport layer (Layer

     4) of the network device;

altering network traffic with the Transport layer by modifying a window size of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sliding window;

and performing a Multi-Protocol Label Switch (MPLS) Fast Re-Route, based on the network performance information in the PIP packets to improve transmission of a second set of data packets over the network, which utilizes a second data link layer protocol.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein improving network performance includes reducing a number of Quadrature Amplitude Modulation windows.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein improving network performance includes changing alternative transmission schema.

15. The system of claim 12, wherein determining network performance information data includes separately counting total data packets and data packets that include real-time content in a data link layer.

16. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer executable instructions for improving network performance, the computer executable instructions when executed causes one or more machines to perform operations comprising:

determining network performance information data indicative of network transmission characteristics of a first set of data packets that are communicated, using a first data link layer protocol, over at least one link of a network, the first set of data packets comprising a plurality of performance information packets (PIP packets) that include at least some of the network performance information, the network performance information in the PIP packets including an amount of real-time bandwidth usage and an amount of non-real-time bandwidth usage, wherein the amount of real-time bandwidth usage is associated with real-time content and the amount of non-real-time bandwidth usage is associated with non-real-time-content;

communicating from a data link layer of a network device to at least one other layer of the network device, information regarding degradation in transmission performance associated with the at least one link in the network, wherein the at least one other layer comprises a Transport layer (layer

     4) of the network device;

altering network traffic with the Transport layer by modifying a window size of a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) sliding window;

and performing a Multi-Protocol Label Switch (MPLS) Fast Re-Route, based on the network performance information in the PIP packets, to improve transmission of a second set of data packets over the network, which utilizes a second data link layer protocol.